DRIVER 2: THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE (Driver 2 (PS))

Member Name: hazzeryoda

Product:	Driver 2 (PS)
Date:	25/01/01 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: eye-candy grpahics, maximum playability, excellent concept, huge amount of variety and variation in levels, great sound, great overal authentic (within the age rating) feel

Disadvantages: some slow-down, pop-up is bad in places, menus and saving is annoying to navigate

When I first played the original Driver game, I must say I was dissapointed; many glitches, garish graphics, difficult handling and a threadbare storyline. As you can imagine, I was wary of Driver 2, but nevertheless I rented it out from my local video store.
By God was I suprised at what I was playing! There was the customary loading time which then exploded in to the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous and slick FMV that I had seen. I was hooked.

You play Tanner, the dinner jacketed car-crunching guy who has been mixed up in the thick plot that permeates the gaming keeping progression from types of missions and locales almost seamless. From Chicago to Havanna to Vegas and Rio; from car-tailing, car-wrecking, time hases and time trials, it looks, sounds and feels lovely. The controlling is good and responsive giving you many options as to what to do when careening round a corner and shaking off a tail.

One thing I was impressed by was the sheer variety and freedom there is in the game. To combat the memorising of your opponent's route there are many different routes that they can take which creates lots of variation between the levels and keeps you attentive and on your toes. The AI (artificial intelligence) of your cops and opponents has been notably worked on, adding to the variation and randomness of the game so that no two plays of a level will be the same. There are many notable additions made to the AI so that the cops and your 'prey' seem much more intelligent than in the first game: cops employ many tactics on chasing and other enemies have a huge array of nifty dodges and tactics they can use when being chased. All adding to the enjoyment of the game.

This is one of those great games who's levels are increasingly hard and frustrating but require a little perseverance to succeed, not so much that you'll end up snapping the CD, but it has been expertly tweaked and written so you will get a maximum sense of acieveme
nt and enjoyment out of each level.

There are glitches however that crop up occaisionally and remind you that it's all just a game. Thing like the slow-down which reduces your games to a jolting 4frames per second for a couple of seconds and the occaisional sparseness of graphics on the intitial levels but this disappears further on. Also, the navigation of the menus and saving gets annoyong as it creates an unwelcome gap between each stage of gangster-life. Beside the things that get you frustrated in a game such as this like the annoying crashes into trees that don't even buckle, there is little else to expect that will make you want to flush the controller down the toilet.

Despite the unqualified and untrue criticisms that Driver 2 has been receiving, like the fact that most reviews dwell much to heavily on the minor glitches than on what makes this game so great, I have to give this game a resounding 5 stars because the awesome playability of this game and the sheer love and copious amounts of attention lavished on the game outweigh the bad points tenfold.

Harry

Summary: